172 Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 
“ Besides all this, the effect of winds acts sometimes in favor 
as well as against the other irregularities. The geographical po- 
sition of the Lakes is such, that allowing them to prevail from 
the same point at the same time over them all, which is by no 
means always the case, they produce a variety of results. A west 
wind forces the waters of Lake Erie into the Niagara River, at 
the same time that the waters from the foot of Lakes Huron and 
Michigan are forced into the straits of Michilimackinac, and there 
again are met by the waters of Lake Superior, through the straits 
of Ste. Marie. Hence the straits which connect Lakes Huron 
and Erie have all the indications of a tide, though irregular as 
to time, as well as to the amount of its elevation and depression ; 
and it has often both risen and fallen in about the same proportion 
and sometimes in the same periods as the lunar tides of those 
Rivers which empty into the Ocean. But when even these tides 
take place, either in the Lakes themselves, or in the straits con- 
necting them, they are fortuitous, and the results of accidental 
disorder common throughout the ‘Lake region. Another feature 
may be observed in the Lakes, differing in nothing from the 
ground swell of the Ocean—the reaction of the water, after 
having been pressed by the wind a few days or hours in one di- 
rection ;—the most favorable point for noticing which is at an 
outlet or bay, and Lake Superior having the largest surface pre- 
sents the most favorable traits of such reaction 
Having thus nearly exhausted my scattered extracts and notes, 
derived from American authorities, it now remains to refer to a 
w more memoranda on the same interesting subject, ee 
fice British writers, such as Sir Richard Bonnycastle, Mr 
Gregor, Mr. Talbot and others. Among these I turn first to Sir 
Richard’s work on Canada, from which I have taken the following 
disjoi nted extracts.* 
‘he Lakes of Canada have not engaged that attention at 
home, which they ought to have done; and there is much infor- 
mation about them which is adead letter in England. Their rise 
and fall is a subject of great interest. The great sinking of their 
levels of late years, which has become so visible and spree os 
commerce, deserves the most attentive observation. The 
can writers attribute it to various causes; and there are as spon 
theories about it as there are upon all hidden mysteries. Eyvapo- 
ration and condensation, woods and glaciers, have all been 
brought into play. If the Lakes are supplied by their own Riv- 
ers, and by the drainage streams of the sania forests ; and 
all this is again and again returned to them from the clouds 
whence arises the sudden elevation or the sudden depression of 
such enormous bodies of water which have no tides? 
Where do the Lakes receive that enormous supply which restores 
* See Bonnycastle’s Canada in 1840, pp. 276, 291 to 300. 
